Fort McPherson Co-op briefly lowers gas prices to make up for 'inaccuracy'

The Co-op store in Fort McPherson, N.W.T., gave its customers a break on gas prices for a few days this week because it says it was charging too much.

Drivers in the Dempster Highway town could fill up their tanks and jerry cans for 99 cents a litre.

"We are member-owned so we decided to give it back to the members," said Peter Vittrekwa, president of the Tetlit Service Co-op board.

"This is just this one time that we adjusted the price to make up for the inaccuracy over the course of the year."

The local co-op said despite falling oil prices, it didn't lower its gas prices because its competitors in the region didn't either.

"There's lots of questions [about] the prices down south. [Like] why aren't we adjusting prices," Vittrekwa said.

On Wednesday, the co-op raised prices to $1.24 a litre.

Prices higher elsewhere

At the end of the Dempster Highway in Inuvik, it costs $1.57 a litre to fuel up at Arctic Esso.

"Pretty weird and unbelievable. It's only an hour and a half away," said Inuvik driver Dan Dillon of Fort McPherson prices.

Beaufort-Delta Petroleum, owned by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, ships and stores fuel in Inuvik and Aklavik. In an email statement, the company said it can't control how much its distributors charge for gas. It also wouldn't disclose how much it charges its Inuvik and Aklavik distributors Inuvik Card Lock, Arctic Esso and the North West Company in Aklavik for fuel.

"This pricing information you are requesting is proprietary," the statement said.

Inuvik Card Lock owner Paul Wiedemann said with taxes and transportation costs, there's no way a distributor could sell gas in the region today for 99 cents a litre and still make a profit. Wiedemann said competitors "never would be able to match" that price.

Heestimated as of last week it would cost a company about a $1.20 a litre to purchase and transport gas toInuvik. That figure includes fuel taxes and GST but doesn't include a markup for profit.

Arctic Esso did not respond to a request for comment.

Recently, the mayor of Aklavik said the local Northern Store told the hamlet it was going to raise gas prices to $2.13 a litre from $1.99, but the price hike never happened after residents complained.

"I'm glad that Northern Store decided not to increase their prices," Aklavik mayor Charlie Furlong said earlier this month.

"And I guess with people making comments around town or when they were in the store, the manager realized yes, there is a concern."